Notices by Richard Stallman (rms@mastodon.xyz)

https://stallman.org/glossary.html#trump
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/12/trump-sell-student-loan-debt

The persecutor has a plan to make sure some US student loans can never be forgiven.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/12/australian-madeleine-habib-released-from-israeli-jail-after-aid-flotilla-intercepted-en-route-to-gaza

Israel demanded that captive Australians who tried to bring desperately needed aid to Gaza sign a sort of confession or they might be imprisoned forever. This is not as bad as what Israel does to the people of Gaza, but it is despicable. And no one should assign any significance to these confessions when prisoners do sign them.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jul/03/holloman-lake-birds-wildlife-pfas-forever-chemicals-aoe

Holloman lake in New Mexico has the highest known concentration of PFAS. People hunt ducks there, but they are not safe to eat.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/oct/12/global-burden-disease-study-high-youth-death-rates-drugs-alcohol-suicide-emerging-crisis

*High youth death rates [from Alcohol, suicide and injuries] are an "emerging crisis", global health study warns.*

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jul/05/the-vehicle-suddenly-accelerated-with-our-baby-in-it-the-terrifying-truth-about-why-teslas-cars-keep-crashing

On the mysterious fatal accidents of Tesla cars, which the company releases little data about.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/oct/12/ai-workslop-us-employees

People are learning not to trust the output of bullshit generators. But they need to organize to pressure or require companies to stop pushing bullshit generators on them. Companies including Google and United Airlines have done this.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/03/national-science-foundation-trump-cuts
https://stallman.org/glossary.html#s-i-c
https://stallman.org/glossary.html#s-i-c

*Scientists warn US will lose a generation of talent because of [the saboteur in chief's budget] cuts.* Scientists usually have, within some ranger of issues, a commitment to truth and integrity. The saboteur in chief would rather not inculcate that into young people.

[2/4] need this technology to have a baby.) Otherwise, the conceptus would need a surrogate mother if it is to develop. Those who imagine that these techniques could "reverse population decline" are perhaps not thinking about where so many surrogate mothers would come from. I don't think millions of women would volunteer for this; most who want to bear a baby will prefer to be its genetic mother too. So i fear they would be pressured or coerced into it - for instance, "We will give you

[3/4] permanent residence here if you act as a surrogate mother for the baby of two citizens." Or perhaps people will sentenced to do this. Would right-wing extremist hesitate? But the idea that we should increase the birth rate is the result of foolish short-termist thinking. A larger population at the time when climate disaster really takes off will probably lead to a more abrupt and deeper disaster, which would leave fewer survivors later, therefore probably with less technology and less

[4/4] remnants of civilization.

[1/4] https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/jul/05/lab-grown-sperm-and-eggs-scientists-reproduction
https://stallman.org/glossary.html#perse

Biologists are advancing fairly fast towards being able to make egg or sperm cells from anyone's tissue. Any two people, of whatever sex and age, could make a fertilized ovum that could potentially develop into a baby. If one of the parents is female and has a functioning womb, perse could carry the baby. (However, most of those couples would not

[2/2] Out Damned Spotify!

[1/2] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/oct/12/spotify-boycott-artists
https://stallman.org/spotify.html
https://DefectiveByDesign.com

Musicians are starting to organize boycott of Spotify, mainly about how it doesn't pay most musicians. But they don't seem to recognize the injustice Spotify does to every listener: such as making them identify themselves (by payment systems) and imposing DRM. I won't submit to those injustices, so I have never used Spotify and never will. Out,

[1/2] https://substack.perfectunion.us/p/the-hidden-reason-why-restaurants

The giant corporation Sysco dominates the food distribution business in the US, and is using this to mistreat truckers and restaurants. Its success has driven many US restaurants to buy food of lower quality. I don't see a reason to distinguish between "organic growth" and mergers as paths to over-concentration. Paying attention to that is based on trying to judge over-concentration as "fair" or "unfair", but that

[2/2] judgment is a distraction from the crucial point: over-concentration is very harmful. We should prevent and eliminate over-concentration in business regardless of how it is or might be created, with the exception of natural monopolies, and those we should restrain by strict regulation.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/12/the-guardian-view-on-labour-targeting-nature-the-problem-isnt-snails-but-a-broken-housing-model

Starmer Labour is showing off how it abandons environmental protection to smooth the way for all sorts of construction projects.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/14/freed-palestinians-describe-horrors-of-israeli-jail

*"Cruelest forms of torture": freed Palestinians describe horrors of Israeli jail.*

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oct/12/documentary-the-alabama-solution

Prisoners in Alabama, when interviewed for a documentary, supported the official story while they were being filmed. But when not on camera, they told of horrible cruelty.

https://stallman.org/glossary.html#thug
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/14/chicago-ice-tv-producer-arrest

Federal thugs violently arrested TV reporter Debbie Brockman as she was walking to a bus stop, and accused her of throwing things at them. Apparently she had not actually done that, because they filed no charges.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jul/05/cambridgeshire-a14-road-wildlife-environmental-disaster

A project to plant over 800,000 trees along a new road in England failed drastically. It is not clear why, but it is clear that the project was done carelessly. I have to wonder whether the contractor responsible was made to pay damages for this failure. I suspect the answer is no, and that is enough to explain why the project failed, though not in detail.